Sleep Scientist: "Sleep Isn't a Luxury — It's Your Strongest Longevity Lever" | Dr. Michael Grandner

The sleep people are getting in the real world predicts how long you live better than almost anything else. The enemy of sleep is not wakefulness. You need wakefulness to be able to sleep. The enemy of sleep is effort. We trade sleep for work, but we get less done when we do it. I've had to make this call many times. I know they're waiting on a response for me from this, but I've got to shut this down now so that I can get to bed when I need to, so that I can be effective tomorrow. Once sleep becomes predictably stressful and you approach sleep from this place of stress without even realizing it, if you can't turn your mind off and this is a new thing, it's because your wind down routine didn't give you enough time and space to wind down. But if this is a chronic thing, maybe it's a learned response. The biggest myth I see about sleep is that sleep has a number of boxes it needs to check to be okay. Like you need to sleep at this time for this amount, that it has to be a certain way or else. actually sleep is quite flexible it's not about tonight it's about the pattern how do i know how much sleep i need why do we sleep the answer of why we sleep is

Today, we are going to talk about sleep, one of the most powerful yet misunderstood influences on our health, performance, and ultimately the pace at which we age. Now, I'm joined today by the most cited sleep scientist in the world. Dr. Michael Grandner is clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist. He's the director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona and is the author of The Sleep Solution. And having published over 300 articles on the impact of sleep on our health, It's safe to say he's one of the world's leading authorities on the topic. His research has helped shape our understanding of how sleep impacts everything from metabolism and mental health to cardiovascular disease, cognitive performance, and ultimately how long we live. Today, we're going to unpack what exactly happens to the body and brain when we sleep, why poor sleep may accelerate aging, and we're going to give you lots of practical strategies known to genuinely improve the way you look, feel, and perform today, and to keep it that way for years to come. Welcome, friends, to The Living Room. Michael, I've been... Welcome, firstly. Thank you. I've been really looking forward to this conversation, kind of selfishly, for a couple of reasons. You know, one, I think... Sleep seems to be one of the things that doesn't carry as much weight in the collective psyche. I mean, nutrition, exercise, stress, human connection, we talk about so much. I think it's got better over the last 10 years, but it seems to be something that we sacrifice regularly. all too readily. And I say that because it's something that I often sacrifice. And so the selfish reason I've been so excited is I know how brilliant you are unpacking a very complicated topic. So thank you for joining us.

No, thank you for having me. This is going to be a really fun conversation.

Yeah. So let's start. You know, not everyone grows up thinking, I want to spend my life studying sleep science. How did you end up here? I mean,